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Last month I introduced our Triumph Toledo in these pages and to my own shame I haven’t used the car as much as I’d like in the intervening time mainly since I managed to find the time to get my own Alfa Spider MoT’d and decided to make the best use of it before declaring SORN for the winter. One of the last trips of the year in the Spider was suitably appropriate since we used it as transport to photograph the Ferrari and Lotus featured in this issue. No, it’s not as exotic as either of them but a good poke around the Ferrari did reveal a couple of parts shared from common Fiat Group parts bins: dashboard vents and the Pininfarina badge, for starters. Later in the month I must admit to being very glad indeed not to have been driving the Triumph since a stone bouncing from a skip truck sent a rifle crack sound echoing through my everyday VW accompanied by a big starburst on the nearside which in days spread across the width of the glass. A complete new screen was needed of course which these days is dealt with efficiently by the insurers but the Toledo is original down to the ‘Triplex toughened’ label on the inside the screen and I know from bitter experience that the non-laminated screen would have showered me with glass and would have ruined my day rather than being a minor inconvenience. Just sometimes you’re grateful for modern automotive technology. The Ferrari and Lotus comparison is a fascinating one: on paper the two cars were very evenly matched despite their very different backgrounds and were priced head-on yet as you’ll discover they’re a very different proposition today. Meanwhile, away from exotics we consider the secrets of Jaguar’s XK engine, the wartime design which lasted until the early ’90s in the stately DS420 limo. Another long-lived powerplant, the M10 powered the BMW 2002, the subject of this month’s buying guide which is the car which really made BMW’s image as a purveyor of compact sporting saloons.